Tank Ideas

[Squirrelbuddies]

Well, I'm one of those people who just can't seem to get my tank to look right. But I think I'm almost there!!

My 55 gallon has been running for a year now and it's been through quite a few transformations in regard to the decor. The one thing which has remained constant is the fish!

This is where I'm at:

Substrate: pool filter sand (I like this a lot as it's easy to clean.)
Rocks: Nice looking rock pile off to the left, with small scattered rocks on the sand
Wood: One piece of mopani and will be adding another piece of bogwood next week after it soaks.
Plants: 2 Aponogeton crispus, 1 java fern, 1 anubias nana
Lighting: 40 watt "Life-Glo"

I need several plants for the left side to replace the large plastic plant currently there. The congo tetras like the plastic plant as it provides nice dense cover and shades the sand (It's one of those "Fancy Plants"). I don't want to increase my lighting - as I really like the look of the Life-Glo light and the lightly stained water. I think a school of neon tetras would look great in here!

So, any suggestions for plants? Also, would 10 or so neons be ok with the congos?

Sorry this is so long and thanks for reading!

 

[chrismr]

Would help if you could post a pic, and we could then say what to move or add or remove... took me a while before I was happy with mine, so know what it feels like.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Here are a couple of pics. They did not come out real well as the batteries were nearly dead so I couldn't take many. (I need to take about 20 pics to get 1 to come out the way I want it!)

Left side --the thing in the lower left corner is fresh zucchini.

Full tank shot -- I would like to replace the large plastic plant on the left and the fake hair grass in the back. Also, the flower pot thing is used a lot by the kribs so I'm a little reluctant to take that out right now...

 

[fishing4exotics]

You would need more lighting if you are going for plants other than the anubias and java fern.

 

[chrismr]

Your lighting looks bette than in my tank, and I have plenty of "high light" plants doing very well...

For the background, I would suggest lots and lots of valis. Mostly green with some red ones too. Planted a couple a inches from the back of the aquarium and a few inches apart. Don't be shy with the amount.

Dead center of the tank I would say go with a few bulbs of red tiger lotus, and around thos plant a few rotala macranda (very sensitive).

On the left where the large plastic plants is, why not try something like a bunc of water wisteria. You would just need to make sure it was far enough from teh side to spread nicely.

on the right, maybe a couple of pieces of bogwood with some java fern growing on... or maybe some indian fern.

Then you could get a few smaller plants to spread around the tank which do not grow very tall. there are some nice sword plants which only grown up to a few inches. Sime with nice broad leaves that will provide some nice shelter for the fish.

Then I would get something to form like a light grassy cover. echinodorus tenellus (also a sword) stays very short and forms anice cover, but should not get too dense to detract from the nice sandy bottom.

Main suggestion: do not hold back when buying plants. buy more than enough, and not just enough, as I always used to

Well, that is my input.... hope it helps

 

[fishing4exotics]

The tank has a 40 watt bulb in a 55 gallon tank. Most plants need at least 2 watts per gallon. The plants in the tank now are the low light plants anubias and java fern. A planted tank is not all that simple. Telling her she has enough lighting and to buy more plants is not very responsible.

Squirrelbuddies, you might want to post this in the planted tank section. They have some members in that forum that are very experienced with planted tanks.

 

[metfan581]

Iam Just wondering....
What kind of Filteration do you have?

 

[nshockeyplaya]

I think it looks fine, and you should leave it

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Iam Just wondering....
What kind of Filteration do you have?

I have an Eheim 2026 and an Emperor 400. I bought the Eheim to replace the Emperor and kept them both running while the Eheim got established.....but then I just kept both of them running. The tank has a pretty full load so I thought it would not hurt to overfilter.

And nshockeyplaya -- thank you! I actually only ended up changing a few things around. I removed the plastic hairgrass in the back, added another piece of bogwood and bought more anubias (taller variety) and java fern. I have a lot of java moss in another tank that I'm going to attach to some shale to put along the bottom. I kept the big plastic plant on the left for now. Plus I added more rock to the pile and made a cave so I could take the vase-thing out.

I bought a plant book this weekend and found a couple of other plants I can use in low light. Thank you everyone for your replies!

 

[metfan581]

I bought a plant book this weekend and found a couple of other plants I can use in low light. Thank you everyone for your replies!

Wow...Can you share some of those plant names because I was thinking of a lowlight-planted tank too.